Brian Kilmeade's Fair & Balanced Discussion?

Fox News claims to be fair & balanced. But even in a discussion that provided both sides of an issue, Fox & Friends still found a way to tip that balance.

This morning, Brian Kilmeade reported about an Oklahoma high school biology class question which asked students what they would do if, in a hypothetical situation, the student or their "wife" carried a dwarfism gene. But before the discussion even started, the Fox fix was in.

Before Kilmeade began, the partisanship was evident. Rather than presenting this issue objectively, as an education matter, Fox set the tone with the visual which defined to the subject matter as part of the Fox & Friends"The Trouble with School" - segments which purport to show the damaging effects of liberal, secular education policies. On Fox, words matter and inflammatory words, used to define areas of disagreement, are preferred over neutral terms. The words "outrage" and "controversy" are part of every Fox & Friends culture war piece and neither Kilmeade nor the banner writers failed to disappoint.

He reported that Oklahoma parents were "outraged" over a high school biology class question which asked students what they would do if, in a hypothetical situation, the student or their "wife" carried a dwarfism gene. The three given answers were allowing the child to be born with the condition, doing gene therapy, and having an abortion.

The questions and answers were shown in a visual which, literally, framed the propaganda with a standard Fox descriptor: "Controversial Abortion Question." While Kilmeade's question, about whether this "is an appropriate question for kids, especially the third option" was relatively neutral, the banner framed the "outrage" with the other standard Fox descriptor: "Asking About Abortion, HS Biology Class Questions Outrages Parents."

The two guests voiced their opinion with no propaganda reinforcement from Kilmeade. (Dr. Arthur Kaplan was in favor of the question while Dr. Amber Northern wasn't.) But as they spoke, Fox made its view quite clear with more biased banners: "Education or Indoctrination? Question Tied to Genetic Mapping" and "Controversial Question, School: Question Posed to Incite Discussion."

As usual, Brian Kilmeade didn't provide all the information. What he didn't mention was that this was a "non-graded exercise" for discussion purposes only. He also didn't tell his audience that "students did not have to participate in the exercise if they felt uncomfortable, and those who did participate were not given a grade." There was no negative feedback for any of the answers which were meant to stimulate (or,as Fox described it, "incite") discussion. Kilmeade also didn't say that this exercise is being reviewed in order to determine its appropriateness and whether it should be continued.